Conserving power in a wireless device is a paramount concern, as the wireless device is typically powered by limited battery resources. To conserve power, the wireless device may periodically operate in a low-power mode, often referred to as “standby” mode. When operating in standby mode, the wireless communication device reduces power consumption by disconnecting power to selected internal components. Additionally, slotted paging techniques have been developed, in which paging signals are sent from a base station to wireless devices within assigned paging slots, separated by predetermined intervals of time. Slotted paging allows a wireless device to remain in a low power standby mode during the period between consecutive paging slots in order to conserve battery power without missing paging signals.
When a wireless device operates out-of-service, the wireless communication device is unable to receive any service signals from base stations. An out-of-service condition may occur upon initial power-up or upon a loss of service during normal operation. In either case, the wireless device is unable to operate in standby mode as the wireless device does not know when or in which frequency band to look for paging signals. Instead, conventional wireless device continues to periodically search for a service signal in both frequency and code space. However, such searching consumes a significant amount of power and quickly drains battery resources in the wireless device. Additionally, in a wireless device the time spent trying to reacquire service may be multiplied in some devices since recovery may be attempted individually for each subscriber identification module (SIM) within the device.